Tryout Recap

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What did we have to do?

We were divided into three groups at three different stations. The first station for me was endurance "ladder drills", wherein you skate in a circle continuously at ~80% of your top speed until a whistle blows and you *sprint*. When the whistle blows again, you skate at 80% again. This continues until you almost feel like you're gonna puke, punctuated by people yelling at you to "dig in", "skate harder", and "show some hustle out there". (I never, ever, ever thought I'd be involved in anything in my life again where someone was telling me to "show some hustle out there" in all seriousness.)

The second station was agility trials- weaving between about 15 cones placed about 2 feet apart, then doing sharper turns around cones placed widely. This was probably the thing I did the best, and kinda reminded me of motorcycle class.

The third station was sprinting and turning. We went in pairs sprinting from a dead stop, around a sharp turn and stopping back in line again. Then we did the same thing, but started laying on our stomachs. Then we did the same thing, but started laying on our backs. Then we started standing up again, but in packs of four, and had obstacles to avoid around the sharp turn.

After the cut, there was more. We skated in a circle switching from forwards to backwards skating. Then we skated while having several rollergirls and refs skate between and around us, chasing us and trying to cut us off or run us out of bounds.

Then, more dreaded ladder drills. We'd been skating without much of a break for probably two hours by this time, so this part felt like a very, very long time. I'd guess it was at least twenty minutes of nonstop skating/sprinting. I was in the second group and glad for the chance to catch my breath, but every once in a while had the awful thought "my god, they're still going, and I have to do this next." If I had any second thoughts about what the hell I'd signed up for, it was during this part.

And then it was over and they led us through cooldown and stretches (I was amused by the collective groan of relief during one particularly nice stretchy for yer thighs and bum.)

And then we were fed pizza and waited a long time for the captains to figure out their draft picks. Fortunately for our egos they did that in private so we didn't have a last-picked for kickball thing going on.

And now I'm a rollergirl!

...and I'm-a-gonna be sore.

Comments

[sarendipatree.livejournal.com]

> ...and I'm-a-gonna be sore.
nice.

[azure-armand.livejournal.com]

"Get in the game mcmorrow!!" ha ha.

And I can't believe that I'm going to be there cheering at some point, wearing the T-shirt and face paint, taunting the opponents, while you "show some hustle out there".

In high school I used to make fun of the Hockey fans who chanted "sieve" at the opposing goalie, and other macho hooligan stuff. But I'm prepared to eat my words for you. I look forward to it. When are the games going to be?

Hey, what is your code name going to be?

[spacebug.livejournal.com]

Hahah. Yay! My sensitive, sometimes makeup-wearin', love-metal playin' brother's gonna be a Derby Hooligan! Sweet!
The cool thing about derby is that the jock vibe is mostly replaced with a punk-rock vibe, despite the "show some hustle"s.
Bouts start at the end of September, I think.

My derby name is gonna be Killahertz.

[dcontaminant.livejournal.com]

now you and your sister can sit around, talk about sports and intimidate your soup.

[http://users.livejournal.com/i_heart_to_____/]

you're a rollergirl! oh my oh my!
when will you be skating in public (and will it before before the end of august, so i can see you?)

that is so frickin neat!

[burnunit.livejournal.com]

fuck yes I get to roll up with all the jock speech I've been saving up.

You cannot beat her, you can only hope to contain her! Sack up, Bullets! Dee-fence! Dee-fence! Time to put some smack down! Drop the hammer, the hammer!! We can chant your opponents names (you know, singsongy, like they do in baseball "Darryl. Daaa-ryll!") and kill kill kill!!

Ooh! faster pussycats! kill! kill!, or even better: faster silver bullets kill! kill!)

[azure-armand.livejournal.com]

Thats a super great code name.

[dangerdhotrod.livejournal.com]

congratulations! but shouldn't it be 'Killa Hertz' or some kind of silly spelling? anyway, it sounds like it was tough!